Bill had done it without Julie's knowledge twenty years ago, but Mathias hadn't answered the call.

He didn't have the guts to do it now.

While they were all at a loss for what to do, Julie spoke up.

"Do you need me to make a call?"

After hanging up the phone, Maria stared at Anthony in silence.

She had called Bill right after waking up, so she still Looked a little disheveled, with tangled hair.

“What? Are you angry that I answered your phone?“ Anthony asked, raising an eyebrow.

It was not that Maria was angry at him, but that she found it unnecessary. In fact, she had woken up earlier at the sound of Anthony's voice when he answered the phone for her.

But, curious to see what he would do, she had kept her eyes closed, pretending to be still asleep.

Upon hearing Anthony's curt reply to Bill, she had realized that it was not an appropriate time for her to get up, so she had continued to lie there until she had really fallen asleep again.

“I can answer my phone by myself," Maria said simply, but her tone was not as cold or arrogant as it had been when she was talking to the Jenkins family.

"Okay," Anthony said slowly. Then he asked after a short pause, "But why can't I answer it for you?"

Was Maria afraid that he would invade her privacy? Was she hiding any secrets in her phone that couldn't be found by her fiance?

There was a hint of embarrassment on Maria's pretty face as she explained weakly, "Well, when it comes to a quarrel with them, it's better for me to handle it myself."

This was the Last thing Anthony was expecting to hear, and there was a mix of astonishment and approval in his eyes.

“Got it," he said briskly.

The weight of the words he left unsaid hung heavy in the air: although he understood what Maria was saying, it didn't mean that he agreed with it.

The next time Maria's family wanted to quarrel with her, he would not let her fight that battle alone.

It was half a month later that Maria and Anthony returned to Sheffield. It was unheard of for the script supervisor of a TV show to be missing from the set for more than a day, let alone for as long as Maria had been absent from the shooting of the Legend of Anne.

And yet, when she returned, no one dared to complain about her absence; rather, they all felt relieved that she was back.